The extent to which teachers should be involved in research is a contentious topic, but Willingham’s book ‘Why Don’t Students Like School?’ leaves the reader in no doubt that there is value in understanding some basic principles of cognitive science. Continue Reading

This post explores the power of testing in the classroom from the perspective of a new teacher in our Science department. Regular testing is useful for more than just measuring progress: it’s also an important learning tool. Find out more below.   Continue Reading

Why have we embedded information literacy?  

Our new Religious Studies GCSE specification requires students to:

• AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of religion and belief (including: influence on individuals, communities and societies)
• AO2 Analyse and evaluate aspects of religion and belief (including their significance and influence)

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Like many schools, we have spent some time focusing on how we challenge our most able pupils. With this in mind, we made this a focus of our most recent work scrutiny activity and looked at books of the most able pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9. Our aim was to answer the above question – how well does the feedback we give support our most able pupils? Continue Reading

We’re excited to announce our second TeachMeet on 1st March. The themes are challenge, enjoyment and risk-taking. All teachers welcome to speak or listen to others. Please book to attend (details in flier above).

Setting the scene:

Since September the Teaching and Learning Group have been focusing on risk taking and were inspired by Allison, S. and Tharby, A. Making Every Lesson Count (2015). We interpreted some of their risk taking ideas and applied them to our own classrooms. To achieve considerable risk taking the teacher stepped back during key parts of the lesson and put the onus on the students to lead their own learning. Students were then invited to talk about these strategies at our Festival of Learning Inset. Continue Reading

I presented this topic at our recent training day with the aim of sharing a few simple ways to improve writing that can be easily integrated into lessons. I took the idea from a Geoff Barton  resource (“5 Techniques to help pupils write better”) that’s around 15 years old now and still one of my favourties – you can find it here along with a bunch of other excellent resources.  Continue Reading